The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1887-05-12
MAKING MATCHES. :
HOW MATRIMONIAL AGENCIES 30
THEIR WORK IN PARIS.

HOW MATRIMONIAL AGENCIES DO
THEIR WORK IN PARIS.
Their Ramiflcations Found IN All Spheres
Of society-The Discoveries Made by
the "secondary Agents"-How Match
is Made.
There are at the present moment in
Paris between fifty and sixty serious mat
cimonial agencies, having ramifcations
in all spheres OF society. Furthermore,
Is per cent of the marriages in the middle
and upper classes of Paris are arranged
by these agencies. This Is fact which
has been established by careful inquiry.
Now, let as see how the agency Is organ
lied and how the machinery works.
Anatole desires to marry. BE does not
know girl that will suit him; his friends
cannot help him; the usages Of Partisan
life prevent him from making acquaint-
ances among marriageable maidens. he
therefore goes to an agency and says, we
will suppose, to the manager:
''Monsieur, am "a years Of age; I am
an employe in the Bilateral Filter COM
pany; earn $50 month, but hope to get
an increase next year. Can you find me
nice young wife, pretty, bright and an
orphan9 do not care to have mother
in-law, and I don't mind If the young
lady is not musician"
The matrimonial agent looks over his
books, reflects, and replies:
s'Monsieur, think can just fix you.
Lady, 80 years Of age, agreeable exterior,
small house near Dion, expectations
$500, daughter Of retired military
man, excellent pianist.
Anatole accepts at once, and two
months later he is married and happy,
and his excellent wife, who knows
nothing about the intervention Of the dis
Greet agency, exclaims in moment OF
expansion: ''My Anatole, what lucky
idea that you stopped at Dion on your
way to Geneva! Had 1t not been for that
we might never have met!"
HOW DID 1T HAPPEN?
Now comes the question. How did the
matrimonial agent Know that this modest
and honorable spinster was waiting for a
husband on the outskirts Of Dijon2 The
answer is, because he has correspondents
all over France, who send him inforna-
ton and exercise sort Of secret police on
his account. In the provinces, everybody
knows everything about everybody else,
and it is easy for the correspondents OF the
matrimonial agents to note that Nile. A.
has inherited $40 600, that Mile. B. has q
weakness for lawyers, and that Mile. G.
has refused to take the veil. every good, !"
you will say. "Now tell me how the
matrimonial agent manages to bring the
young people togethers'' This is precisely
the point where the genius comes into
play, aided often by an oblging priest.
The matrimonial agent has under his
command whole army Of secondary
agents, who may be classified under seven
headings, viz, scouts, entertainers having
homes, permanent or temporary inquiry
agents. travellers, followers, introducers,
and conscious or unconscious tntermedt-
aries.
The chief scout Of first class Partisan
matrimonial agency was formerly a body
servant of Cavour; he married the cham
bermaid of fashionable beauty Of the
court Of Napoleon III; and now he
and his wife earn in their new profess
sion $4,000 year. Their business is
to discover marriageble girls and to re-
port them at headquarters; the ex-valet
Of Cavour gossips at cafes with men ser
wants in rich families; he learns the modus
vivandi of eaoh family; he gets the names
Of all the friends of O family, and, II neccs-
sary, the names of the friends Of the
friends; thanks to this information the
chief matrimonial agent is able to dis
cover among these names either that Of q
person affiliated with the agency, or else
an unconscious agent who will introduce
his client to the family of the young Lady
whose hand and dowry are to be won.
AGENTS ON THE LOOKOUT.
Travellers are agents sent to the
provinces, and especially to the seaside or
to watering places, on some special mis-
sion. Followers are volunteer agents who
90 to marriages and midday masses in the
Paris churches, remark young girls ac-
companied by their mothers, follow them
to their homes, and by dint of patience
discover who they are, what they are
worth, and so constitute a sort OF dossier
or brief, which they sell to an agency.
Conscious Intermediates are financial
agents, solicitors or notaries whose busi-
ness enables them to collect in
formation of a private kind. AS for
the unconscious agents, they are
created by the conscious interme-
diary, who calls upon friend Of
the family about which information Is re-
quired, or upon doctor or priest who
is in relations with that family. This con-
scious intermediary has an honorable
social position; he apologies for tntruding
and says that he has been sent to ask for
information in view Of marriage much
desired by person whom he is not yet at
liberty to name. The family is puzzled,
wonders who the mysterious person may
be and answers vaguely, perhaps, but
sufficiently to enable the agency to know
what are the desires Of the family. Then,
If the agency has not on its books client
capable Of realizing those desires, it Is but
q poor agency.
The bride rarely knows that she has
been won through the intermediary of an
agency. 1t is only the very richly lowered
who are aware of the existence of this
complicated and mysterious machinery,
and who are therefore tempted to see in
every young man with whom they waltz a
client Of matrimonial agency which Is
seeking to earn its usual commission on
the dowry. Thanks to the extension Of
the operations Of matrimonial agencies,
French marriages in the middle and upper
classes tend more and more to become
merely operations of loveless and arith-
metical multiplication. Paris Cor. New
York Sun.
Name Of Class Color.
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